How does health care bullying affect patients?

Despite what people say about bullying being restricted to the schoolyard, bullies abound anywhere you go – from high school to college and beyond. You might encounter a bully at the grocery store or in your own workplace. When Louisiana patients are subjected to a bullying environment in the health care industry, their own safety and well-being could be at risk.

It might surprise you to learn that workplace bullying is more common in the health care field than in other industries. As the Journal of Emergency Medical Services explains, nurses and other health care workers who may be viewed as subordinate to senior nurses, doctors and administrators, can be victimized by bullying behavior at work. When a worker is constantly subjected to negative words and actions, others may be directly or indirectly affected.

How are nurses bullied, you might wonder? Often, senior nurses berate, humiliate and intimidate the younger nurses in their stations. Some groups may ostracize others or gossip behind their backs. A jealous co-worker might take credit for another nurse’s accomplishments or sabotage others’ work to look better. Some in the health care field might even resort to yelling or physically attacking their targets.

When a nurse is nervous, anxious and frightened from being bullied on the job, his or her work performance may suffer. Patients might experience substandard treatment, or a nurse might make a mistake that could harm a patient. It is unfortunate that many nurses experience such bullying at work that their emotional and physical health suffers. However, if you are harmed as a result of health care bullying, you may wish to seek compensation.